1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a print fleet system comprising a plurality of printer instances, each of the plurality of printer instances having a same set of at least one system setting; a registration system configured to register print jobs in combination with system settings of the same set of at least one system setting of the plurality of printer instances; an advice system configured to generate advice for an operator; and a user interface system for displaying the advice. The invention also relates to a method to be applied in a print fleet system according to the invention.
2. Description of Background Art
A print fleet system comprises a plurality of printers, each printer of the plurality of printers comprising a print engine. The print fleet system may comprise a plurality of printer instances, which have a same set of at least one system setting. A system setting is a setting, which configures the printer instance or influences the over-all behavior of the printer instance. A system setting may be a system configuration setting, which configures the printer instance. A system setting may be a system timing setting for regulating the behavior in time of the printer instance. A print job setting, like a number of copies, single/double sided printing, or n-up printing, which print job setting may be entered by a user when submitting a print job, is not meant to be a system setting according to this invention.
The print fleet system may comprise printer instances, which have the same set of system settings to be set, tuned or tweaked. System settings of a printer instance may be configured during installation of the printer instance. System settings of a printer instance may also be changed during uptime of the printer instance, for example before a print job is processed by the printer instance. The terms printer and printer instance are equivalent terms hereinafter.
A printer of the print fleet system usually has a local user interface comprising a screen suitable for display of information for the operator or user and suitable for operator input or user input. Hereinafter the term user will also be used for an operator of the print fleet system. The registration system and the advice system may be implemented as software components in a control unit in one of the printer instances or as software components in a work station connected to the plurality of printer instances of the print fleet system. A printer instance in a print fleet system may have system settings that are printer instance specific. For example, color calibration data and media registration settings may be different for each printer instance, even for the same media. Those system settings may be changed in order to optimize quality of output of the printer instance. As values of those system settings themselves are printer instance specific and, for example, dependent on wear and tear, these values cannot simply be copied to another printer instance to reproduce the same print quality.